


Doctor Hybrid

by FailedDestiny



Category: Lego Ninjago
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:54:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27491512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FailedDestiny/pseuds/FailedDestiny
Summary: After discovering his father still had an old lab located at the University, Zane and the others go to clear out the space. But little did they know that Zane's father, Dr. Julian, had a much darker history than any of them realized.What did Dr. Julian unleash when he abandoned his lab?
Comments: 14
Kudos: 31





	1. Prologue: The Old Office

“Wow, I can’t believe your dad actually used to teach here,” Jay said as they unlocked the old lab door. Zane was excited; he didn’t even know that his father had once been a professor of Electrical Engineering at the Imperial University of Ninjago.

“I know,” Zane replied. “He never mentioned what he did before he moved out to the woods. I wonder why he left?” It was kind of bizarre in a way; Dr. Julian had been a very private person, but Zane thought they knew everything about each other… Zane stepped into the old office; if it weren’t for the thick layer of dust covering everything, Zane could have mistaken the room for still being currently occupied. Then they turned on the light, and saw the mess that the room was in. 

“Huh...I guess your dad wasn’t really all that into organization,” Jay quipped as they looked around. Kai however, didn’t miss a beat with his own observations.

“Yeah, because it totally couldn’t be all of the giant monster battles that nearly destroyed the city multiple times!” Zane had to agree with Kai’s assessment; the university was close to the South Docks of the city; all of the seismic issues stemming from their battles, not to mention the general number of earthquakes this part of the continent experienced were more than enough to wreak havoc with a space like this.

“This is why the University wants us to clear it out; there’s some kind of liquid draining into the labs below.” Zane searched the room for anything that could be the culprit, but everything looked like it was in order.

“What I don’t get is why the school didn’t clear this place out when he left?” Kai asked as he looked at some of the old technical books on one of the shelves.

“According to my scan of the real estate deed, it would appear that Dr. Julian owned this building, and was leasing it to the University,” Pixal replied.

“Wait, what?!” Jay asked as he dropped one of the files he was looking through. Zane didn’t miss a beat as he too pulled a few files from one of the many cabinetes.

“Yes, my father held several patents that are still quite lucrative. How do you think I have been able to afford the Bounty’s fuel all these years?” Zane put the file back, after reading through everything in there. All that he found were the answer keys to various tests that his father used to administer.

“So let me get this straight: Your father built an entire building for the University, claimed a floor of an ENTIRE WING for himself, and they just, what? Left, like, a quarter of the building, completely locked-up for 50-odd years?” Kai asked incredulously. The Nindroid understood where he was coming from, but he didn’t really have an answer that he knew his brother would like...Primarily because he didn’t like it either.

“Well, yes,” he began. “The University had no legal authority to break in, and my father was also paying for all of the building utilities. If they had, then, as per their leasing agreement, they stood to forfeit their usage of the rest of the building. Which would have cost the school a large amount of not only money, but prestige.”

“But...this is a public college; they haven’t charged tuition since the Royal Family of Ninjago became the sole sponsors!” Jay said in his own confusion.

“It still costs metric fuck-ton to relocate a bunch of classrooms and equipment to another building, Jay!” Kai chimed in. Zane nodded in agreement as he opened another filing cabinet.

“Wait, how do you know that?” Jay asked.

“Believe me Jay, I know…”

“Kai spent a lot of time looking at colleges with me before he became a ninja,” Nya replied as she checked-over some old computer terminals.

“Nya was doing pretty good in school...really good. But, our system out in Ignacia only went on until you hit the age of 13 or 14, and then you were done.” Jay took a seat as he thumbed through an old text book while he listened, but Zane could see that he didn’t like the possibilities of what could have happened if they’d never met.

“We were looking into a bunch of different programs for me when Sensei showed up.” Zane perked up at the 

“Wait, are you telling us that the only reason you two stuck around was because of me?” Nya chuckled as she leaned against one of the bookshelves in the back.

“We stayed because Lord Garmadon was still a threat,” she started. “And...because Kai knew better than to stand in the way of me making my own choices.”

“Well, I’m glad that both of you decided to stay,” Zane said as he tried to open one of the cabinets on the other side of the room. He struggled with the handle as he rattled the doors.

“What’s going on? Is the door stuck?” Kai asked as he came up beside him. Zane nodded as he let go of the handle.

“I believe that it’s rusted shut,” he said. “Perhaps you can use your fire to help loosen the lock?” Kai frowned as he grabbed the handle and gave it a quick jiggle to test it’s range.

“It’s pretty bad,” he said. “I can try, but we might still have to destroy the door.” Zane gave him an understanding nod as he stepped back. Kai grabbed the handle and began heating it up slowly. Zane could see the rising temperature from his thermal vision, but the handles didn’t appear to be budging. Just as he thought that Kai was about to give up, a loud ‘CRACK’ sounded from the other side of the door.

“Hey-hey, I think I got it!” He said triumphantly as he twisted the handle down freely. Kai pulled the cabinet doors open quickly to see what was inside.

“Well, what’s in there?” Nya asked as she and the others stepped over to see what they were looking at. They heard her gasp in surprise as she saw the interior. The back wall of the cabinet had been removed, and instead of containing files or old experiments, its doors hid an extra entrance to a whole other room.

“I think we found where that leak’s coming from,” Kai said as he took a step into the hidden room. Almost in a trance, Zane followed him inside; taking in the number of glass water tanks, and computers that lined them.

“What is this place?” Pixal asked as she picked up an old clipboard. Zane touched the glass pane of one of the empty tanks closest to the door; looking it up and down. Somewhere deep inside his mind, he started having flashes- Little blips and images of being inside of one of these tanks. After a couple of moments of silence, Zane finally responded.

“I think,” he began; “I think this is the lab where my father created me.” Zane stared at his own reflection in the glass, trying so hard to dredge more of those memories to the surface.

“Uh, guys? I don’t think we’re alone in here…” Jay said from further down the line of tanks. Zane shook himself out of his riviera to see what he was talking about.

“What do you mean? What’s-HOLY CRAP!!!” Kai yelped as he reached the tank Jay was staring at. Zane ran up to see what they were talking about, but nothing prepared him for what it was. He looked into the tank to see his own face staring back at him. Except...much much younger. Looking down the rest of the line, he could see that there were other versions of him in most of the tanks...along with a tag at the very top with read: ‘CLONE STATUES: DECEASED’.


	2. The Child

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zane and the Ninja continue their investigation of Dr. Julian's former lab, trying to figure out exactly what happened. Now that Zane knows that he isn't alone, what is he going to do with his new found 'brothers'?
> 
> Who is the mysterious Cyborg found wondering around New Ninjago City?

The child wandered through the darkened back allies of New Ninjago City; cold, wet and almost completely confused as to where he was. His memories were all a blur, but that was nothing compared to the confusion that he had felt since he woke up. His head was aching, as if his brain itself was trying to pound its way out of his skull. He stumbled as he tripped over a piece of debris. 

“Who’s there?” The voice was older, but somehow strong? The child looked around the dumpster to see an older man with an eye patch and a prosthetic arm standing at the mouth of the alley. He shivered and clutched the cloth he’d grabbed from a clothesline, as a cold breeze shifted through the gap. 

“Well, my my, look at those implants,” the man said as he entered the alley. “Tell me kid, how did you get those?” The man crouched down to examine the metal pieces coming out of his temples, and that replaced his right eye. The Child sniffed in fear, too afraid to shake his head in front of the stranger.

“These look old,” he said. “Very old...what kinda’ monster would do this to a kid?” The Child was on the verge of tears; he didn’t know what was happening, and above all, he was scared.

“I-I woke up like this,” he said. The man frowned as he looked The Child in the eye. Something told him that he should  _ run _ ; that this man wasn’t to be trusted. But he was so tired, and scared and above all, hungry! The Child sobbed as he sunk his nails into the palms of his hands. Then he felt the cold metal of the stranger’s hand disappear from his where it was holding his chin, and the weight of his heavy coat draping around his shoulders wrap around him. The Child looked up, and noticed a grim smile forming on the stranger’s face.

“Well, I’m the Mechanic...I’ll take care of ya’, kid. That ya’ shouldn’t worry ‘bout.”

  
  


~~~~xxxxXXXXxxxx~~~~

  
  


Zane felt a pang of sadness flow through him as he listened to his friends talking. Kai had, of course, wanted to bring in Cyrus Borg to help them figure out what was all of... _ this _ , was. Zane looked-over the remains of...what? His brother?

“Hello~ Ninjago to Zane!” Zane blinked as Jay waved his hand between him and the tank. He looked over to see the others staring at him with worried looks.

“I’m sorry, I...I guess I was lost in thought,” he said as he placed a hand on the glass. “I always thought that I was his creation, but...I’m not, am I?” Looking into the tank, through the preservation fluid, he could see wounds from some kind of implant that was removed. 

“Zane-” Pixal started, as she stepped forward. He looked at her reflection in the glass of the tank, and she stopped. He didn’t want to admit it, but even he noticed the haunted look in his own eyes. He blinked trying to clear his mind a little. When he opened his eyes, he’d somehow managed to steel himself enough to turn around and walk away from the tanks.

“We still need to find where that leak’s coming from,” he said as he stepped up to one of the old computer terminals, and tried to turn it on. 

“If my father was using this stuff to preserve soft tissue without killing the subject, then it likely has a high salt-content. If it goes on for too long, then it could compromise the integrity of the building.” It took a few tries, but he finally got the terminal online. As soon as he tried to access the internal mainframe, the whole thing crashed.

“Zane,” Kai said, as he placed a hand on his the Nindroid’s shoulder. “Look, this is a lot to take in, believe me, I know, but…” he trailed off as he shot a sad glance to Nya. He wasn’t watching, but he could feel the silent sigh ripple through his hand.

“We can find the leak, Zane,” Nya finished. “Maybe you and Pixal should look through your father’s files...maybe you’ll be able to get a better idea of what he was doing?” Zane shot a glance over at the tanks holding the clones of...him? He was about to respond when Pixal spoke up from the other end of the room.

“I believe I have found the source of the leak,” she said. The group looked up to see her standing in front of an empty tank. Unlike the others, the tank was completely empty, and the glass was almost completely shattered. Curious, Zane stepped up to the tank to inspect the damage.

“Jay do you think happened?” Jay asked as he inspected the damage.

“I don’t know,” Kai started; “but look at the glass. It was definitely smashed-in from the inside.” Zane noticed the pattern too; whatever happened here, this wasn’t an accident.

“So,” Jay started; “if the tank was broken from the inside, then...where’s whoever was inside the tank?” That was a very good question. If someone was locked inside of the tank, then where did they go? Zane ran a spectral scan of the floor, trying to find any trace of where it might have gone. Pixal however, was the first to speak up.

“I believe I know where...whatever it was, has gone,” Pixal said. She grabbed a light from her belt and ran it across the floor, lighting up a set of wandering footprints about the same size as the experiments in the surrounding tanks. Zane felt his head starting to spin as he adjusted his vision to see the footsteps leading out of the room, to another door at the end of the tanks. He felt his power core skip a pulse as steadied himself against the steel frame of the tank.

“Zane?” He looked up to see Kai standing over him with a worried look on his face. A quick glance at the rest of his friends reflected the same fear. Zane blinked as he steadied himself.

“I’m...fine,” he said, though he didn’t think that anyone really bought it. Pixal joined Kai at his side, ready to offer her aide.

“We should get you out of this room. You don’t-”

“No,” he interrupted, a little more sharply than he’d intended. “We need to find out as much as we can about what happened here,” he said as he turned his attention back towards the tank’s lone access console.

“How?” Kai asked as he gave one of the other console’s a look-over. “These systems have got to be at least 40 years old by now. If they’ve been running for that long, then I doubt that we’ll get any stable electrical connections to the databases.” Zane paused for a second in surprise. That was a fairly accurate observation of computer hardware malfunctions. Then he remembered that he  _ was _ a blacksmith; welding and electro-plating were both something that he would understand at the most basic levels.

“Even if some of the memory chip set have failed, there should still be reels of magnetic tape decks holding a complete record of everything here,” Nya said as she stepped up to one of the other terminals.

Zane nodded as he tapped away at his own terminal. “I just hope that we can find out what happened-” He stopped as he finally managed to break into the mainframe file system. “I got it!” He said triumphantly, as he began searching through the system logs.

“That’s awesome!” Jay said; “What’s it say?” Zane searched through the monitoring record. All the way up to a few days ago, all of the statuses were the same...until the final entry. Zane gasped as he read through those last few lines of information. The final entry read: 

WARNING: UNKNOWN OPERATING SYSTEM DETECTED

CLONE STATUES: RESUSCITATED


	3. CR1-212-R

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Zane and the others start to piece together what his father was up to, Dr. Borg makes a startling discovery while investigating a breach of his systems.
> 
> What happened to Dr. Julian's first family, and just who is the child that the Mechanic has taken in?

The system bellowed information over the loud speaker’s as one of the security Nindroid made its way through the corridors to the construction and repair bay. The entire facility was abuzz with activity as many of their staff and active Nindroid alike were mobilized for some unknown reason. All that any of them knew, was that it had something to do with their design progenitor: Zane. The doors parted as the Nindroid made it into the repair bay.

“Dr. Borg, I have the report on ninja’s findings from Dr. Julian’s former office,” said the security Nindroid. Dr. Cyrus Borg turned away from his console long enough to take the report.

“Ah, thank you, um…” he paused as he looked the security Nindroid over. “I’m sorry, but I don’t quite recognize you. Tell me, what is your name?” The security Nindroid grinned under it’s mask.

“CR1-212R,” the Security Nindroid replied. “I was just commissioned.” Borg smiled in approval as placed the tablet in his lap.

“Ah, well I’m sure that you’re going to fit just fine here, ah...CR1,” he said with a slight hesitation. The Nindroid nodded as he stood at ease.

“Please sir, call me ‘Cry’,” said the Nindroid. “Given my assigned identifier, it feels more natural.” Borg’s smile faltered for a moment.

“Are you sure about that?” he asked. Cry understood why; it was a little too close to another Nindroid form Borg Industries, who’s design all of the current model’s were all adapted from. 

“I am,” Cry replied. “If and when we can uncover the system files for the General Cryptor Operating System from the mainframe, there should be somebody out here ready to at least try to help him integrate into society...even if it might be futile.” Cry’s voice was a little more than he’d been aiming for, and while the others had obviously noticed, none of the others called it to attention.

“I see,” Borg replied with a little more zeal in his voice. “That’s...actually very commendable of you CR- Ah, Cry,” Borg stammered a little as he corrected himself. Cry felt a pang in his chest at hearing the subtle cringe in his father’s voice, but he pushed it all back for the time being as he squared his shoulders.

“Thank you, sir,” he said. Cry turned to the large screen as it completed its task. He tilted his head in curiosity as he saw the read-out. “A level-five diagnostic?” Cry asked as he furrowed his brows. “Are the primary Nindroid OS servers alright?” Dr. Borg sighed as he turned to the screen.

“Yes, they’re fine;” he began. “The system detected an extremely large drop in mainframe CPU usage just after midnight.” Now some alarm bells started going off in Cry’s head as he examined the incoming data.

“Really?!” He said as his security protocols kicked in. “Do you think it might be Mindroid again? Or possibly General Cryptor?” Either prospect was worrying enough, but with the amount of data apparently missing from the drives, he had to consider both prospects.

“I’m...not sure,” he replied. “The drop is big...far bigger than the last time when Mindroid uploaded himself into an unused Nindroid system and became Mr. E. It’s almost like…” He trailed off as he scrolled through the data. Cry was entranced by the system graphs coming in as well; so much so, that he didn’t even register the entrance of their two guests.

“Well, we’ve checked all of the spare Nindroids still awaiting operating systems and the factory floor for missing parts; everything’s right where it’s supposed to be,” Cole said as he stepped through the doors to the server room with Lloyd in tow. The other Nindroids tried not to stare at the pair as they walked in. Cry however, simply tilted his head in curiosity as he wondered why all of his brothers treated them as practical holy symbols.

Dr. Borg visibly sighed as he turned towards the pair. “I wish that I could say that was a relief, but now that leaves us with an even bigger question!” The pair gave each other a worried look as they heard Dr. Borg.

“Wha-What do you mean by that?” Lloyd asked. Dr. Borg sighed as he pulled up a graphic of network traffic.

“There’s two reasons why the servers would see such a drop in memory access usage: One, the operating system or systems for the Overlord’s Dark Nindroid’s have managed to escape system quarantine, or…” He trailed off, but Cry understood what his creator meant. It was something that all of the security Nindroids knew could be an eventual possibility, but that didn’t mean that they liked to acknowledge it. The two ninja however, didn’t appear to get it.

“Or, what?” The Master of Earth asked. Borg sighed again as he turned back to the screen.

“If the Overlord’s dark Nindroids aren’t uploading into individual unused units, then the only place they can go is into the wider mainframe.” Cry was afraid of that, but the ninja didn’t seem to understand.

“Um, what does that mean?” Cole asked. The master of Earth rubbed his temple as Borg tapped in a few more command lines.

“If any of the Overlord’s Dark Nindroids got into the mainframe, then that means that they potentially have access to the entirety of the-” He stopped as he saw the two ninja doubling-over in pain.

“Oh dear! Medic!” Borg shouted, as he wheeled himself over. “MEDIC!” Cry rushed over to their sides and began a medical scan on them. He could see that their heart rates had jumped to about 180 beats per minute, and blood pressure was spiking!

~~~~xxxxXXXXxxxx~~~~

Kai looked over some of the paperwork that was lying on Dr. Julian’s old desk. Zane was standing in the other corner looking through some old schematics and diagrams. They’d all watched him have a near breakdown in his father’s chamber of horrors, so he’d offered to get him out of there while the others kept investigating. He shook his head as he pulled out another folder.

“Holy shit,” he gasped as he saw it’s contents. Zane must have heard him because before he’d even realized it, his brother was standing at his side. Kai shook his head as he laid the file on the desk.

“This- This whole file is you!” Kai almost couldn’t believe it. Zane fingered through the contents, almost in equal disbelief.

“This is my...birth certificate,” Zane said as he picked up one of the more damaged papers. “Zane Julian. ~at~er: Dr. ~i~~t~h~~ Ju~l~an. Mot~er: S~vne Goggayya.” Zane squinted as he tried to make out the faded and water-damaged writing on the paper.

“I was...I was once…” Kai saw the tears forming at the corners of his eyes, and knew exactly what was going through his head, because the same thing was going through his own. Not only had he just learned that he had dozens, maybe even hundreds of brothers just waiting to be revived, but he was also once human. Kai’s gaze eventually wandered back down to the folder, noticing the sheet of paper that was lying beneath it...and instantly regretted it.

“Zane,” he said. “There’s more.” He knew that this was all alot to process, but it was important they got as much of the picture as they could. And this was something that Zane needed to know more than anything.

“Is that my...my death certificate?” He asked. Kai nodded as he held it up, careful not to read it without Zane doing so first.

“Could you…” Zane sniffed as he laid his birth certificate on the desk. “Could you please read it for me?” Kai nodded, understanding why. He looked over the paper, trying to keep back everything that he was feeling himself.

“Name: Zane Julian. Age: 2 years, 3 months. Cause of death: Severe head tra-” He stumbled over his words, not wanting to finish the sentence. He felt the weight of Zane’s hand rest on his shoulders, telling him that was enough. 

“What else is in the file?” Zane asked. Kai was afraid of looking back down at the file, but he knew that they had to. 

“There’s another death certificate here,” he said. That got the Nindroid’s attention. Kai thumbed through the paperwork, curious as to what it was. That was when he saw the newspaper clippings.  
“Zane…” he began, holding up the clippings. Zane read the clipping, just barely registering the article until he saw the picture.

“No...no, NO!” He cried as he felt his breathing, or whatever his software was using to approximate it, picked up. Flashes of her face, some far more clear than the picture, flashed before his mind’s eye. And he felt so many different things with each and every image; Love, joy, happiness, safety… But one in particular sent a shiver down his spine. Before he knew what was happening, saw Kai looking down at him with a terrified look on his face.

“ZANE! C’mon Zane, talk to me buddy!” Kai had a desperate look on his face as Zane picked himself up.

“Wha-what happened?” He asked, looking around the room. He could feel the warmth of Kai’s hand through his gi. 

“I- I saw her… the woman in the article!” He was practically shaking as he caught his breath. “She was so real...It was like I had been there. But- but it was all so fuzzy...like a dream.” Zane watched as Kai knit his brows together in confusion.

“Zane, how could you have seen-” Kai stopped as he started to realize what was going on. The clippings, the certificates, the woman, the lab, the clones...it suddenly all made sense to him. 

“Zane...This woman...she-”

“-My mother,” he said flatly. “I was once born human.”

~~~~xxxxXXXXxxxx~~~~

“Now, this doesn’t look too bad. Here, ‘um jus’ gonna tweak this ‘er, and this-Done!” The Mechanic said as he pulled and reattached several circuits. The boy blinked as his cybernetic eye finally lit up. The boy smiled as the laser tracker in his prosthetic traced it’s way around the dim room. 

“That’s the spirit!” The Mechanic said as he patted the child’s back. The boy smiled as he stood up and began to wander around the room. Everything seemed so much more vibrant now that his prosthetic was functional, and the Mechanic could see just how enamored the kid was with everything.

“Now, can you tell me where ya’ came from?” The kid didn’t respond, instead, he seemed more curious about the various scrap parts strewn across the workshop.

“Ok, ok, I get it. Ya’ just met me and yer scared. But you can trust me…” he rubbed his prosthetic eye as a dark gaze took over his other, remaining eye. “‘Ah know all too well.”

“Ah-ah-ah-” The child said, trying to pass something through his implanted voicebox. The Mechanic’s eye went wide as he realized what the kid was trying to do.

“Take it easy, kid...don’ force it out,” the Mechanic said as he patted the boy’s back.

“Yer’ synthesizer mus’ be short’d. I’ll see if I don’t have a spare lyin’ ‘roung here.” He got up and began to rummage through a closet in the back of the workshop. It didn’t take him long to produce the severed head Borg-Industries Tactical Nindroid. The boy tilted his head in curiosity as the Mechanic set the piece on his workbench.

“Don’ worry yer lil head. These hunks ‘o junk can’t feel a thing!” He laughed. The boy’s head twitched before turning to the computer. The Mechanic smiled as he unhinged the metal jaw to get at the part.

“Say, until I can figure out how to install this thing, you should probably keep tryin’ ta speak.” He unhooked a few wires as he continued. “Why don’ you try comin’ up wit’ what ya’ wanna be called in the meantime?” At this point, he was too focused on his work to really pay much attention to what the kid was doing.

“Mah-Mah...Min…” The Mechanic was so focused on his work, that he barely registered what the kid was saying. That is, until he felt a small hand land in his shoulder. He turned around to see the kid holding a Borgphone, with a voice synth app pulled up. He watched as the kid hit the play button.

“My name is Mr. E. Thank you for the help, but I need more.” The Mechanic squinted his eye, as he tried to figure out what the hell was going. Then Mr. E continued: “Help me repair my body, and I will give you my brother. You know him, as the Nindroid, Zane.”


	4. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go awry when a disaster at Borg tower causes the team to realize where the missing Nindroids are going. 
> 
> What are they going to do with the reactivated clones, and who is controlling the uploads?

Cry stumbled down the corridor, struggling to realign his visual and gyroscopic sensors as he moved through the halls. Alarms were blaring all around him, as the building entered emergency lock-down. Despite being lost, he could feel the floor beneath him lurch as something hit the superstructure of the building.

“Urg!” He groaned as he regained his balance. “CR1 dash 212 dash One, to Central Control, requesting protocol update!” He practically shouted into his internal comms. When he didn’t get an answer, he knew that something had really gone wrong. Moving completely on instinct, he leapt down the corridor, completely ignoring the disorientation his sensors were feeding him, as he made his way to the central control column.

“Help!” He heard someone crying out in the distance. Cry looked around trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from, but without the aid of his internal tracking systems, he was practically running blind. Then he heard something explode in one of the labs down the hall. Finally deciding to just deactivate all of his sensors except for his basic gravitational, visual, auditory and olfactory senor suites, he suddenly felt much more stable as he ran down the corridor.

“HEEEEEEELLLLP!” He heard someone again shout from inside the lab. Cry tried his security code to gain access, but the doors still wouldn’t open. Finally, he got tired of trying to follow the standard protocols, and took a step back from the door.

“STAND CLEAR OF THE DOOR!” He shouted as he primed his eyestalk. Without his more advanced targeting scanners to map-out where his cutting laser needed to fire, he had to use his hand to calibrate the power levels manually as he activated the beam. It was easy to aim his head as he cut through the magnetic seal with his eye-stalk. Once he was through the lock, the doors swished open, to reveal a cloud of mist flowing through the air. Tracing the piping showed him the chemicals were coming from a pair of liquid nitrogen and hydrogen tanks on the other side of the room. Then he heard the whimpers…

“Please! Help!” He heard a woman calling from the other side of the mist. Without his thermal sensors, he couldn’t see where she was, but scanning the room with just his basic eyes, he found someone else lying on the floor. He rushed over to the older man to see the massive bruise on his head from where the conduit had hit him when the pipes had burst.

“Help me!” He heard the woman again. He looked up to see a middle-aged woman on the other side of the lab. She didn’t look injured, but there was a steady stream of liquid nitrogen spewing out from another burst conduit. One look at the system, and Cry was able to see that pressure was building in the system.

“We need to get out of here! Hydrogen is building up in the system, at those pressures, the tanks will explode once the primary storage system reaches maximum!” He shouted, as he pulled some of the debris off of the old man. The woman wept as she shook her head.

“I-I can’t make it!” She shouted. “There’s-The NO2 stream’s too powerful, I’ll freeze!” Cry looked up to see what she was talking about. He saw that the mist was pretty powerful, but given the amount of frost on his own uniform, he knew that she could make it.

“There’s not enough time!” He grabbed the last, big piece of fallen piping and started pulling it off of the old man as he spoke. “I can’t reach you in time! You’ll have to come to me!” He started to walk the section off, careful not to hurt the man any more than he already was. “You can make it! Your clothing should be enough to protect you!” He was just about ready to grab the old man, when he saw the woman shake her head as she wept.

“I-I can’t! I’m too scared!” Something in Cry broke as he heard those words; his programming told him to just focus on the man in front of him, but there was something inside of him that was screaming that there was another way. If he still had his more advanced sensing systems, then he might have already calculated an alternative way to get them all out, but as it was, his software was fighting to keep him focused on his current task. He took one more look at the woman’s location, and noted how fast the pressure was building. He could do it, but even with his advanced targeting systems, he would be cutting it close, but he didn’t care.

Once he had the last piece of debris out of the way, he shouted: “Hold still! On the count of three, I’m going to come get you!” He shouted.

“What!?” The woman shouted, but Cry didn’t respond. Heheld the piece of conduit in a spot so that he dropped it, it wouldn’t hit the old man.

“One,” he shouted. Without a hesitation, he dropped the piping and turned to the woman.

“What are you doing?!” She shouted. Cry ignored her as he crouched into a pouncing stance.

“Two!” He zeroed in on her spot, and leapt across the NO2 stream until he was right in front of her. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. In one, felled swoop, Cry grabbed the woman, and flung him over his shoulder before turning back, and leaping for the door; managing to reach out and grab the old man on his way. Once they were out of the room, he made a b-line for the closest stairwell while he still had the time. Just as he locked his sights on the door, his internal communicator crackled to life, and his more advanced systems started to come back on-line.

 _"...It is time,"_ a familiar voice said through his comm system. It was the voice of a Nindroid, but he just couldn't place it's owner. The floor rumbled, as the hydrogen storage tanks started to rupture. They didn’t have more than a few seconds left, but they could make it. He left into the air with all of his strength, and flung his leg out, kicking-down the door to the stairwell, and to safety...at least, it should have been. The landing rumbled as the tanks finally blew. Looking around the landing, trying to find a safe place for all of them, his comms crackled again.

_"You know what you need to do..."_

"Arg, shut up!" Cry growled, as he turned back to see a wall of fire rushing towards them. The woman screamed as she saw it, but Cry had something in mind. Without even thinking, he rushed over to the closest corner of the stairwell, and pushed both humans into it. Just as the flames made their way through the door, he covered them with his body; protecting them from the flames.

~~~~xxxxXXXXxxxx~~~~

“This doesn’t make sense,” Pixal said, as she pieced through the old data-tapes. Zane’s father had recorded as much of his research as he could onto the magnetic strips, but time hadn’t been kind to the aging media, and without a secondary backup, she was having a hell of a time trying to recover a lot of the information.

Just as she was about to sweep everything off of her console, the Nindroid felt a familiar hand rest against her back. “Hey,” said the voice. “Maybe you should take a break. We’ve been at it for hours!” Pixal checked her internal chronometer in disbelief. When it told her that they had indeed been working for four hours, twenty-nine minutes and fifty-seven seconds, she was just completely stunned.

“You’re right,” she said. “I should see how Zane is doing.” She turned to leave, only to be stopped by Nya.

“Jay and my brother took him over to home almost two hours ago,” she replied. Pixal saw the worried look in her eyes, even if she didn’t realize it; it told her everything.

“I see.” Pixal felt a pang in her chest as she realized just what she had done. She’d been so focused on finding out as much as she could about this lab, that she completely lost track of the world around her...and now, the one person she truly loved didn’t have her at his side.

“Maybe we should get out of here, just for a little while,” Nya said. Just as Pixal was about to respond, some of the lights flickered, as the alarms sounded as the emergency lights in front of the tanks began to flash. Pixal rushed over to the nearest console to see what was going on.

“What the hell’s happening?!” Nya asked as she made her way to one of the other consoles. Pixal worked as fast as the out-dated machine was able to, trying to find the source of the emergency.

“Oh no,” Nya muttered. “No, no, no, no, no…!” Pixal shot her a worried look, as her terminal froze.

“Nya? What is it?” She asked. Her best friend shook her head, as her breath hitched. Pixal registered a jump in her blood pressure, indicating that whatever she was looking at, it really wasn’t good.

“A large amount of data just hit the system. It’s all being held in the network memory chip-sets, but the connection between them and the mainframe disk drives are timing-out!” Nya said as some of the tanks lit-up. The LED screens above them all cycled, one by one, as if the system was trying to find something in particular. As soon as one was finished, the screen flashed a “0” before shutting off. That was when it hit her…

“The network drives? Of course! The university just finished an upgrade to the building’s network systems to improve external connectivity!” She said. “But these systems were designed to hold the ghost-image of Zane’s core operating system...what could be big enough to overload them?”

“I don’t know what it is, but if we don’t purge local storage, then it’s going to crash the entire system!” No sooner than she said it, one of the tanks LED screens changed to a star; the system stopped it’s search for whatever it was looking for, as the lights in the tank came up to their full brightness. The Zane clone, or whatever it was that the tank was preserving, twitched as various implants came online. Pixal watched in both awe and horror as the creature’s eyes suddenly shot open, and it’s head began looking around the tank.

“What the hell?!” Nya muttered as she watched the terrifying scene before them. Pixal watched at the sign above the tank changed, now reading that the clone had been resuscitated, and the water inside the tank was starting to drain. The clone flailed in terror as the liquid around him was sucked out. He fell to the floor of the tank as the glass slid up.

The boy started coughing and vomiting up whatever that liquid he’d been suspended in. Nya rushed over to the now open tank before Pixal had been able to respond. “C’mon, we have to help him!” Pixal moved to help the pair, but she stopped as she noticed the message that Nya's terminal now displayed: 'BORG INDUSTRIES, NINDROID-SENTRY OS VER. 3.4.6.17 INSTALLATION - COMPLETE'

~~~~xxxxXXXXxxxx~~~~

Echo gazed out the lighthouse window, watching the sun rising over the horizon. Tai-D was downstairs, still cleaning up the sitting room in time for Father's return...Except, Echo was starting to think that he wasn't coming back.

"I hope Father is ok," Echo muttered. Thirty-six months... That's how long it's been since he left. He'd told Tai-D that he would be back soon, but when he left, he also left very specific instructions for Tai-D in case he didn't come back after a certain amount of time. When he didn't, Tai-D followed his directions to the letter. Echo looked down to the stairwell as Tai-D was making its way up the stairs.

“Is it really time?” He asked as the little robot hopped the last step. He didn’t have to look to know that his friend was bringing up the lock box that father had left. He really didn’t want to look back. That is, until he heard something that he wasn’t expecting.

“Tai-D’s finished with the boat,” came the other voice. Echo turned to the source of the voice. He saw a young man who didn’t look seventeen or eighteen, but he knew was so much older, standing at the top of the stairs.

“But...do I really have to go?” Echo asked. “Maybe...I could wait for one more day?” The young man shimmered in the growing light as he stepped carefully out of the doorway and into the room. Something was off about him as he got closer, but the only person he ever knew was his father, so for all he knew, this is what some people do.

“I know that this is what your father wanted, but whether you stay or go is a choice that only you can make,” he said. Echo considered what his friend said, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that leaving was a bad idea. Finally, he got off of his spot on the windowsill and grabbed an old, white lab coat that had once belonged to his father.

“Father...always said that he would come back. I just don’t want him to return and find this lighthouse empty.” Echo felt his companion pull him into a loose hug, as he grasped the old lab coat tighter.

“Rusty, how long did he tell you to wait for him...originally, I mean?” The Nindroid didn’t want to answer, mainly because he already knew that his friend wasn’t asking a question, but something in him was saying he should.

After a few seconds, he finally responded: “Six months.” His voice synthesizer quivered slightly as he spoke, but his friend didn’t seem to notice; or at least, he didn’t acknowledge it.

“You’ve been putting this off for too long,” he said. “I know how hard it is to leave the only home that you’ve ever known, but...sometimes, it’s something that you have to do.” He was right...of course he was right! He’d reset his own chronometer back to the date that his father had left so many times, that Tai-D had taken to maintaining a separate calendar just to keep his own on-track. Even after all of that, there was still one thing that he couldn’t let go of…  
“If I leave, then…then what happens to you?” Echo felt like there was something stuck in his throat, even though he knew that he didn’t need to really eat anything. His friend smiled a little sadly, as he held his wrapped his own, slightly rusty arms around him.

“I’ve been living on borrowed time as it is, Rusty,” he said. “My time’s almost up, and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna leave you here alone to decay again.” He remembered that day he arrived; he could remember just how bad of a condition of disrepair he and Tai-D were both in all the sea-salt air and lack of spare parts. It may not have been so bad if he’d had enough resources to create an actual endo-cover to stretch over his frame. After what seemed to be an eternity, his companion finally let him go.

“Then...I think I’m ready,” he finally said. His friend gave him a simple nod, as he turned to leave. Echo gave the room one final look, before picking up his bag and followed. They made it down the stairs, and just out the front door sitting on the rocky shore, was the make-shift boat that he, Tai-D and his friend had been building from whatever scrap metal, drift-wood and fabric that they were able to find. He looked to his family, and gave each of them one last hug.

“I want to tell you that I’ll be back for you Tai-D, but would be lying if I told you that I could keep that promise with full certainty,” he said. “So if I do not return, I want you to know that I will always consider you my brother.” He felt like he was about to cry, even though he knew his tear-duct system had gone off-line months ago. He pulled the little maintenance bot into a hug, careful not to damage any of it’s remaining limb mechanisms.

“And you,” he said as he turned towards his companion. “I-I don’t know if...I think-I mean, I hope we’ll…” he stumbled over his words as his internal processors struggled to piece together a coherent sentence, but nevertheless, his friend seemed to understand what he meant.

“Don’t worry...I’m not going anywhere,” he replied. Holding a hand to Echo’s power unit, he continued: “No matter where you go, or what you do, a small part of me will always be here…” Echo felt his emotion’s algorithm begin to overload at the words, but instead of shutting off in a cascade failure, he felt his system start to oscillate between weeping and laughing in relief. Before he knew it, he was holding his friend tight, and for the first time in forever, his tears flowed freely from his artificial tear ducts.

“Thank you,” he muttered as he finally managed to collect himself. Pulling himself from their embrace, Echo stood at the back of his make-shift metal boat, and took in the sight of the lighthouse in all of its glory for one last time.

“Safe journey’s,” his friend said. Echo gave him a stern nod as he turned back to craft, and took breath.

“I’ll find him,” he said, as grabbed the stern. Using all of the strength and power he could muster from his corroding capacitors, he pushed the boat down the rocky, sandy shore, and into the sea; jumping into the back just as the craft started moving on it’s own through the surf. He turned back to give his family a wave, but a strong gust took hold, and nearly knocked him over as the boat lurched forward a speed he wasn’t yet used to. By the time he managed to get back up, the shore line was already starting to fade.

“I’ll come back! I will find you again!” He shouted, as the current Echo looked back at the lighthouse that he’d called home for almost as long as he could remember, and watched as it and his family faded in the distance. He watched as Tai-D grew faint, and his companion faded from view all together, as the mist from the sea obscured the island. Echo didn’t want to take his eyes off of them, but then, suddenly, he felt a chill run up the poly-synthetic data-fibers of spine.

“GAH!” He gasped while doubling-over. His whole body felt like it was trying to tear itself apart as all of his internal capacitors flooded with power! He took a moment to run an internal diagnostic to see what was wrong, but beside his usual issues, he didn’t seem to have any real problems. That was, until he saw the power levels emanating from his core.

“What? That-that’s impossible!” He muttered. His program must be malfunctioning! How could he now have so much power in his reserves!? He looked back up to see a wave of slight-green light spreading away from where the lighthouse was in the distance, and for the first time in a very long while, he could feel himself start to weep. Then, his internal system's diagnostic turned up something else: A message that was stuck in a corroded transmission buffer. He opened the text document, and felt a different kind of chill run up his spine.

 _"...And now you are free,"_ he muttered to himself. The reception date was almost three hours ago. A quick check of the encoding signature showed him that it was from somewhere in Ninjago City; it must be from his father! He felt a pang in his chest as he realized that his father must have been waiting for him for so long, that he chose to send a message himself...and by the tone of the text, he meant for them to be his last.

"Goodbye, father," he said to himself as he gave one last look out the rear of his ship, just in time to see the last of the lighthouse's faint outline finally fade from view. There was no turning back now, especially since he finally had the choice. This was the very last thing that his father asked him to do, and now, he was going to find out what had happened. Echo felt a tingle in his hands; they felt...cold? He looked down to see the mist from the sea-spray dancing around his fingers, and suddenly, as if by instinct, he knew exactly what he needed to do next.

“Thank you, my friend...I will always treasure your gift.” He turned around to look out the front of his make-shift boat, now dead-set on finding his way to the next shore. With the raise of his hand towards the sail, he felt a gust of wind blow into the fabric, and the speed of his craft pick up.

“I will find you again, someday, my brother...I promise you that, Morrow.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Doctor Hybrid(PODFIC)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27663787) by [WhaleKingdom (BadFeelin)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadFeelin/pseuds/WhaleKingdom)




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